In conventional fashion, a boot is held on a ski by a front and a rear binding. The ski itself possesses a certain degree of flexibility, which arises mainly from its internal structure. During skiing, the ski bends as a result of the stresses to which it is subjected by the skier, but also because of the ground on which it slides. Ski flection can be influenced by the reaction produced on the ski by the bindings. It is also possible to affect ski flection using a static stiffening piece or means which act dynamically on the ski. The invention relates to dynamic devices, i.e., those which, during the sliding motion, can transform at least a portion of the boot-induced stresses in the direction of the ski into a moment of flection which tends to cause at least one end of the ski to dip toward the snow.
A device of this kind was described in unpublished French Patent Applications Nos. 91 10895 and 91 15612, in Applicant's name.
These devices comprise a sensor component mobile vertically and capable of picking up the stresses which one end of the boot exerts toward the ski during the sliding motion. It further incorporates linkage means which transform these stresses into a force directed approximately along the longitudinal direction of the ski. A transmission device transmits this force to at least one of the binding bases, where it engenders a moment of flection tending to cause the end of the ski to dip toward the snow.
In these devices, the connection linking the transmission device to the base of the binding is a direct transmission, most often in a jointed arrangement. This transmission gives good results, but lacks flexibility and, in addition, is reversible; that is, the flective stresses of the ski, caused, for example, by the ground, can be retransmitted back to the linkage means and the sensor device, a phenomenon which is not always desirable.